Bills to establish 47 varsities, FMCs scale second reading
With the passage of a measure to create 47 new federally-owned institutions via a second reading, the number of federally-owned universities in Nigeria could reach 99 in the upcoming months.
This comes as roughly 56 legislation to create Federal Medical Centers across the nation have passed its second reading.
Nigeria presently has 52 federal universities, with several federation states housing multiple campuses.
In addition to the current schools, the House is also debating a number of legislation that would create an additional 32 Federal Colleges of Education, 11 Federal Colleges of Agriculture, and 5 Federal Polytechnics.
Nigeria also has forty polytechnics, 27 federal colleges of education, 22 federal medical centers, and 52 federal universities.
Some of the legislation were either not signed by the President or passed by the 9th Assembly but failed to receive the necessary support from the Senate to become law.
Universities of Science and Technology, Agriculture, Aviation, Medicine, and Engineering are just a few of the institutions that will be founded.
According to the House’s findings, many bills to create colleges for entrepreneurship, cancer research, and vocational and skill acquisition are also being considered.
For instance, Lagos State has asked for the creation of three additional Federal Medical Centers on top of the current one, according to an analysis of the House order paper outlining the institutions and other measures being considered.
Recall that on December 30, 2023, Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen stated in a speech to the House that in just six months, the Green Chamber had received and reviewed 962 bills, 500 motions, and 153 petitions.
The lawmaker for Kaduna State’s Zaria Federal Constituency claims that 120 of the proposals have passed second reading and are being examined for potential future legislative action.
